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Making Waves

by Denise Kennedy

Most people don’t walk around with a deep awareness of how they make an impact on the people or world around them. In truth, most of us just follow the path that ignites our passions and keeps our souls alive with excitement. Even as you read this, you may be truly blinded to the incredible way you use your gifts and talents to motivate, encourage and inspire others, but you do.

“Don’t worry if you’re making waves simply by being yourself. The moon does it all the time.” — Scott Stabile

Many have said that the most influential people in the world, are those who just humbly did what kept their hearts on fire. They helped people, lifted the hurting, reached out to feed the poor, painted their dreams, built beauty out of clay, and never stopped dreaming – even against the odds. You are one of those people, if you open your eyes every morning with a sense of expectation at what another day brings. You are one of those people, if you truly want to make a difference in the lives of others. You are a wave-maker, even if you never actually see the impact your waves make.

Think about the moon; it literally makes moves nothing else can compare to. You will never be as powerful as the moon, but you can make moves right now, where you are. Today can be the day that you dramatically choose to focus on the strength of purpose you carry. You are faced with the choice to give your all and channel your best efforts towards the dreams you carry in your heart. It could be time for you to build on the waves you are already making, or it may be time for you to make some changes in the direction you are moving in? The choice is always yours to make!

“It’s wonderful to be grateful. To have that gratitude well out from deep within you and pour out in waves. Once you truly experience this, you will never want to give it up.” – Srikumar Rao

Gratitude is a great outlook to encourage in your heart, even if things may not be as you would wish. There is always something to be thankful for, you just have to take the time to find it. Once you start looking, you will find even more than you previously imagined.

Look at what you are doing; is it moving you in the direction of your dreams? When you think about the things you do on a daily basis, will the end results be ones you will feel proud of? Is it time to write that book? Change careers? Make that move? Ask that question? The answer is right there in your whispered reply. Don’t ignore it. Come on, an ocean of opportunity awaits you, don’t miss the next wave. Somebody else may be waiting on your waves to motivate them to start their own.

“Just like a surfer, when the right wave comes along, you better be ready!”

– Denise Kennedy

“Don’t give yourself the opportunity to regret the chance you didn’t take.” @roxanamjones

An inside look at Citizen Journalism, by Denise Kennedy

It’s been around for years, and you have possibly been doing it but never thought of it in this context. It keeps you awake at night when you should be asleep, but when the writing bug hits you, the pen (or the keyboard) is in control. For all the writers reading this, it comes as no surprise that writing has been a passion of many since time began, but for some of you the title for a specific type of writing is new news for you: I speak of the trendy, hipster, dedicated blogger, known as ‘the citizen journalist’.

The following definition given by Rosen sums it up quite simply:

“When the people formerly known as the audience employ the press tools they have in their possession to inform one another, that’s citizen journalism’.(Jay Rosen, 2008)

Citizen journalism is based upon the occupation of citizen writers, processing, collating and producing content for public readership, news and information.

According to Bowman and Willis, (We Media, 2003), written back in 2003:

“We are at the beginning of a Golden Age of journalism — but it is not journalism as we have known it. Media futurists have predicted that by 2021, “citizens will produce 50 percent of the news peer-to-peer.” However, mainstream news media have yet to meaningfully adopt or experiment with these new forms. Historically, journalists have been charged with informing the democracy. But their future will depend not on only how well they inform but how well they encourage and enable conversations with citizens. That is the challenge.”

It is important to note that we cannot make the mistake of confusing what is known as Community Journalism and Civic Journalism, which are both related to the actual writing and reporting of professional journalists. The huge increase of media access, online platforms, digital marketing and new technology, have all led to growth in volume of citizen produced articles, and as this trend is set to rise, it can be expected that citizen journalists will most definitely be seen on a larger scale moving forward.